I've 2 accounts at OANDA. They are popular with most small time traders that come to these forums. They have one of the tightest spreads in the popular currency pairs. The fact that they use a Java platform means I can trade from anywhere, like hotels, airport terminals, etc. I generally recommend OANDA to those that ask me. I don't like the charts. They have limited time periods. For me I use only the 30-minute charts. They also use 11:00 P.M. EST and midnight EDT for end of day on their daily charts. That make the daily charts useless since that is in the middle of the Asian session.

Most traders don't like Saxo because their minimum account is 10,000 USD and the spread is around 5 pips, not 3 or 4 pips from the others. They do have an excellent platform. In fact, that is the only platform I have running most of the time. They also offer more currency pairs than most other online market makers. If you are a position trader, the wider spreads shouldn't make much of a difference. They weren't targeting the small time traders, but they are starting to. You can now trade as low as 50,000-unit lots in the majors. For other pairs, there is a 10 USD ticket fee.

As you probably know, UBS is the world's largest interbank FX market maker. They have much higher minimum account size. I was told that it is 250,000 USD. The best thing about them is that you can trade mulitple accounts in a single block trade. They are great if you trade OPM. I prefer their order procedure. You have to request a quote each time. You are given time to accept or reject the quote like it used to be when I was trading over the phone a few years back. Most others have what-you-see-is-what-you-get quotes. In the forums, I read about re-quotes sometimes. The banks don't. When they give you a quote, it is good for a few seconds.

favorite may not be the best word to describe fx broker,I'll say least offensive.GFT is who i'll open acc. with namely because of the new platform FX2,trailing stops,oco and cont. orders.I won't open acc. untill they release it for live trading.I discount any broker using a java platform so that narrowed it down quite abit.their spreads are aver.,3 and 4 pips on majors.As bad as I hate regulation FX is one place I think they could use someone looking over their shoulder.
Mike

I've been using GFTForex V 2 and I like it a lot. The spread is not bad, their platform is definitely above average and their customer service is amazing. I place trades on the phone pretty often, and I get answered on the first ring.
Also, their offer a lot of exotic pairs. I tried forex.com, was not impressed at all.

I currently trade with Refco which is the parent company of FXCM. The feature I like the best from them is guaranteed stops. I place stops just before London or Asia open or just before an economic report and if it gaps against me, I still get filled at my stop. This way I can gamble by taking a position before news and have a tight, guaranteed stop if I'm wrong.

I currently trade with Refco which is the parent company of FXCM. The feature I like the best from them is guaranteed stops. I place stops just before London or Asia open or just before an economic report and if it gaps against me, I still get filled at my stop. This way I can gamble by taking a position before news and have a tight, guaranteed stop if I'm wrong.

Finally made it across to this forum! OANDA has to be the platform of choice for novices and small traders due to their no minimum or no-lot policy. With the other platforms a fair amount of capital is required to trade 1 lot prudently, and moving up from 1 to 2 lots instantly doubles your exposure - a difficult time if not adequately capitalized.

OANDA however, still has much work to do on safety of client funds - for instance clients don't have any protection against internal fraud, so large accounts would probably be best advised to either diversify or trade with the banks.